I20 A YEAR OF COSTA RICAN NATURAL HISTORY 



but we made ourselves at home to the extent of tying up 

 our horses, loosening girths, taking off our wet coats and 

 hanging them up to dry, while a number of men looked on 

 with appreciative grins at our rather draggled appearance. 

 The pack-mules with the empty milk cans had passed us 

 on the way up and were waiting in this shed to be unsaddled. 

 Presently the manager appeared and gave us permission to 

 have food for the horses and to sleep in the haymow, and 

 one of the workmen now unsaddled our beasts and threw 

 down what looked to our eyes enough hay for four horses. 

 As a matter of fact our steeds ate steadily at it for two hours 

 and a half, but they had surrounded it all by that time. 

 Then they were watered and given a second similar feeding 

 at which they worked all night. 



Having arranged the matter of staying, we looked about 

 us while it rained. Our particular shed also sheltered some 

 ox-carts and every now and then an ox or mule wandered 

 in out of the rain, or to pass the time of day with the visiting 

 horses. There were three mllklng-sheds In all, two of them 

 quite large. We noticed also some American cultivators, 

 harrows, etc., and two huge Imported draught horses which 

 made the native horses look like toys. The sheds themselves 

 and their surroundings were very like such places at home 

 where the owner has not been stirred by the modern Ideals 

 of cleanliness — neither worse nor better than hundreds of 

 barnyards in the eastern United States. The house was a 

 curious mixture of boards, bamboo, adobe, galvanized Iron 

 and other scraps. It seemed to have three rooms, a bedroom 

 on the right, a recessed room In the center having a little 

 covered, earth-floored porch before it and apparently con- 

 taining sacks, seeds and other supplies and on the left a large 

 kitchen. 



We reached the farm about 1.30 P. M. At 2.30 the cows 

 began to come In from the fields, large handsome creatures 



